New World

Mt. Nibel - Part One

It did not take them long to reach Nibelhiem.
The aircraft landed outside the small town and they all exited the ship. Cloud
was relieved to see his bike exactly where he left it. When they entered they
were greeted by WRO soldiers who had taken over the small abandoned town.

“Sir,” one of the peacekeepers said to Cid saluting him.
“The commissioner wanted me to brief you on the situation. After we removed the
unconscious subject from the manor basement my team and I took cover in the
abandoned homes waiting for the targets to appear. At 1300 hours our snipers
spotted two men matching the suspects’ descriptions bypass the town and head
towards the base of the mountain. We did a quick sweep of the area but were
unable to locate them. I informed the commissioner and he advised us to fall
back and wait for you to show up.”

“Thank you Sargent,” Cid told the officer and turned towards
his comrades. “So it sounds like they headed towards the reactor. The Sheria
can get us up there but she can’t land. We will have to jump and call for her
when we’re finished.”

“Sounds good to me,” Barret told his friend and the others
nodded in agreement.

They all headed back towards the airship and took off for
the top of the mountain. They flew low and along the way they kept an eye out
for anyone walking towards the reactor but didn’t see anything. When they
reached the reactor they did one flyby to see if there was any activity outside.

They were surprised to see a Shinra helicopter parked in
front of the reactor and could make out two people standing next to it. They
knew exactly who it was from the fiery red hair on one of them. Seeing that the
coast was clear Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Cid jumped from the airship as it
hovered a few meters above ground.

When they touched ground they could see that the two Turks
were busy unloading small crates. Reno and Rude stopped what they were doing
when the four landed.

“What are you two doin’ here?” Barret asked them.

“Vincent called us and told us they were here,” Reno
informed them.

“What’s in the crates?” Cid walked a few steps towards the
cargo trying to make out what it was. Whatever it was the whole aircraft was
full of it.

An evil grin appeared on Reno’s face.

“Our specialty,” he said as he kicked the lid off the crate
nearest to him exposing red TNT sticks.

“Who authorized this?” Cid asked picking up a stick of
dynamite.

Reno looked at them a little puzzled.

“He didn’t tell you? Right after we got the call from
Vincent, Reeve called us and told us to blow the place up.”

“So what do we do now? Help them blow the place up?” Cid
asked his friends a little surprised Reeve did not mention this important piece
of information.

“We sent Vincent a message telling him to shut off the
power. We can’t blow the place up until the reactor is shut off or it might
spill mako like a running faucet. Since the power is still on and Vincent is
nowhere to be seen either he didn’t get the message or he is still inside.”
Reno informed them.

“You two keep setting up the explosives,” Cid told the Turks
then turned towards the others.

“Why don’t we split up into groups?” Cid suggested to Cloud,
Tifa and Barret. “One will stay to help set up the explosives with these guys
while three of us go in to look for Vincent and shut off the power.”

Tifa knew what she wanted to do. All she could think of was
finding Miles and the real Genesis as soon as possible. She had a score to
settle with the two and wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

“I want to go in,” she told her friends.

“I’ll go too,” Cloud said following Tifa.

“Why don’t you help with the explosives Barret,” Cid
suggested. “Since you got experience blowin’ up reactors and all.” Referring to
his time as Avalanche leader years ago.

Barret reluctantly agreed. Although Cid was technically
right it was not a time in his life he was particularly proud of and didn’t
appreciate being reminded of it.

The three made their way inside the reactor while Barret
helped the Turks unload the rest of the crates. When they entered the reactor
it was exactly the same as Cloud remembered from years ago. They walked across
the first catwalk and were just about to climb down the ladder leading to the
chamber below when everything around them suddenly went dark.

“Well I guess Vincent found the off switch,” Cloud and Tifa
could hear Cid say in the darkness.

Vincent was standing outside the main chamber inside the Mt.
Nibel reactor quietly listening to the conversation inside. After he left
Healen it did not take him long to track down Weiss and Miles by air. He
debated whether to confront them or follow them. He chose the latter because he
believed they had something planned and wanted to find out what it was. He had
been feeling uneasy the last few days regarding the events leading up to Miles
and Genesis’ capture. It seemed too easy. Maybe that’s why he was not surprised
when the two bypassed Nibelhiem and made their way towards the mountain reactor
where Genesis was waiting for them.

Despite his intuition on everything he was still surprised
when he heard Genesis’ voice inside the main chamber. Having all three of their
adversaries in the same location he was grateful he called the Turks; they were
going to need all the help they could get.

At that moment Vincent felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
He opened it to see a text message from Reno.

‘How fitting,’ he thought to himself after reading the
message. Then he proceeded to go find the reactor’s power source.